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Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
2024 National Book Award Finalists Announced
The 25 Finalists for the 2024 National Book Awards were announced this morning, with five finalists in each of the categories of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translated literature, and young people’s literature. The fiction category includes three headline releases from 2024 in James, All Fours, and Martyr!. James, I think, was the front-runner from the moment it came out (and maybe from the moment it was announced), and I don’t think that changes here. I find myself pulling for Knife in nonfiction because of the endowment effect (it is the one I have read) and because I think, weirdly, Rushdie is now underrated and underappreciated.
The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books
This observation, namely that current college students are having notable and unprecedented difficulty with sustained reading, has been floating around for the last couple of years. This piece in The Atlantic admits, of course, that bemoaning the abilities of the younger generation is a time-honored tradition, but also cannot help but consider that maybe this time it really is different. I have a little experience directly here — I taught the course that is the lead example here, Literature Humanities at Columbia University, a couple of times more than a decade ago. I can say that back then, the students were admirably prepared, game, and capable. Nick Dames, who has taught many more times than I did, seems to think that, indeed, there really is something different afoot.
Book Riot Exhorts You to Vote and Endorses Kamala Harris for President
I can say it no better than our own Sharifah Williams does in our endorsement of Kamala Harris:
We find ourselves, again, approaching an election season where it is imperative to lend our voices to the call for every American to vote and be heard. The last time we published a political endorsement, we had not yet witnessed the January 6th attack on the Capitol, which resulted in at least seven deaths and more than 150 injuries in connection with the insurrection as well as a shaken nation. Roe had yet to be overturned, placing politicians between doctors and patients and giving states often catastrophic power over the reproductive health and family planning decisions of many. Book bans and censorship had yet to reach a critical point, with political groups standing in front of parents, librarians, and educators, telling them what their children and students can and cannot read. Americans who have witnessed their country’s descent into a regressive age demand freedom and change.
We stand among them and endorse Kamala Harris to be the next president of the United States of America.